Outlook into the Trading Opportunities for Small Investors: E-Mini Future Trading and E-Mini Futures Trading Hours
Summary
In this decade, when trading is increasing its popularity, new contracts are also being added to aid the investors. One such contract to help small investors are E-mini futures trading. The most important advantage is that the E-mini futures trading hours are almost 24*7 and pocket-friendly
History
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange was the first to launch E-mini future trading contract. They aimed at individual investors who could not cope with the standard contract sizes as they were expensive. E-minis help the investors keep track of the underlying asset's price movements. The first value for E-minis was one-fifth of the complete standard contract. Various assets can come under E-minis. These can be mainly classified under Indexes, Commodities, and Currencies.
A Clear Picture of E-Mini Future Trading Platform
They are future contracts that are traded electronically. It includes a portion of the values corresponding to the standard future contracts. In 1997, this idea bought by CME was based on S&P 500. This is short for Standard and Poor’s, which indicated a weighted index of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the U.S. Since the future electronic trades were successful, CME removed the standard-sized S&P 500 in September 2021. Another cheaper investment option is available today- a micro E-mini future contract. This is targeted to bring out the even smaller businesses, here referred to as micro, into the world of stocks and trading.
How Is E-Mini Futures Trading Different From The Rest?
E-minis are not that different from the other types of contracts available to this day. The only difference is in the smaller size and cost of friendliness. This feature is what is responsible for the popularity among small investors. It also provides the facility to acquire many trading strategies like spread trading.
E-Mini Futures Trading Hours
E-mini trades electronically nearly the whole day. The CME Globex trading platform acts as a relevant platform for trading on a quarterly cycle. They start around 5.00 p.m. a day and continue till 6 p.m. the following day. Principal trading months include every multiple of three: March, June, September, and December. This is what is meant by the quarterly cycle. They are open six days a week, starting from Sunday till Friday.
Expenses over Trading
No legal minimum is kept as a cut-off to do trading. However, a person should have the amount with which they can cover the trading margins of the whole day. This will depend on the individual. The E-mini S&P 500 contract is marked at $50 times the price of the standard.
Cons of E-Minis
All the points discussed above were focused on the pros of E-minis. Just like every other financial instrument, there are a few downsides also. The prices of E-minis are volatile and can be changed very quickly. This is because of their electronic trading component. They are highly volatile. Another demerit is its minimal selection of available e-mini contracts.
